Evidence review of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products 2018: A report commissioned by Public Health England

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4 weeks ago

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Public Health England, February 2018

This report has been commissioned to summarise evidence to underpin policy and regulation of e-cigarettes/vaping devices. It finds:

The addictiveness of nicotine depends on the delivery system.

It is possible that the addictiveness of tobacco cigarettes may be enhanced by compounds in the smoke other than nicotine.

As e-cigarettes have evolved, their nicotine delivery has improved. This could mean that their addiction potential has increased, but this may also make them more attractive to smokers as a replacement for smoking. It is not yet clear how addictive e-cigarettes are, or could be, relative to tobacco cigarettes.

While nicotine has effects on physiological systems that could theoretically lead to health harms, at systemic concentrations experienced by smokers and e-cigarette users, long-term use of nicotine by ‘snus’ (a low nitrosamine form of smokeless tobacco) users has not been found to increase the risk of serious health problems in adults, and use of nicotine replacement therapy by pregnant smokers has not been found to increase risk to the foetus.

Adolescent nicotine use (separate from smoking) needs more research.

The long-term impact of nicotine from e-cigarettes on lung tissue is not yet known and may be different from its impact systemically.